A former Republic of Singapore Navy cook has been jailed for 12 months after arranging to meet a 15-year-old boy he met online and involving his former boyfriend, who was serving as a Singapore Army captain at the time.
Owen Toh Wei Song, 26, was sentenced on Tuesday (Sep 22) after pleading guilty to causing a minor to perform sexual penetration. Two other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
According to Channel News Asia, the case began in April 2024 when the 15-year-old secondary school student searched online for ways to make friends.
He came across an online forum for “mature Singaporean gay men” and selected Toh’s profile, which contained a link to his Telegram account.
The teenager told Toh that he was 15 and was preparing to sit for his N-Level examinations that year.
Their conversations later turned to niche sexual topics. Toh told the boy that he was inexperienced in those matters but knew someone who was — his former boyfriend, Chaw Chia Jun.
Toh and Chaw, who was 39 at the time, had been in a relationship between 2021 and 2022 and remained in contact after their breakup.
The boy agreed to meet Chaw. Toh then contacted his former boyfriend and told the teenager that Chaw was 32, despite him being 39.
Sometime before June 5, 2024, Chaw picked up Toh before the pair drove to collect the teenager.
During the journey, Chaw caressed the boy’s thighs.
The three then went to a multi-storey car park in Punggol and parked on one of the uppermost decks, where there was no one else around.
Toh and the teenager were naked when Toh sexually abused him, while Chaw filmed the encounter.
Chaw later asked the teenager to perform a sexual act on him, but the boy refused. The three nevertheless engaged in other sexual acts before leaving the car park.
Toh obtained a copy of the video recorded by Chaw and kept it on his computer.
The abuse eventually came to light after the boy’s mother and sisters became concerned about changes in his behaviour and gifts he had been receiving from an adult man.
After confronting him, they learned about the sexual encounter. The teenager subsequently made a police report on Oct 23, 2024.
During sentencing, prosecutors sought 14 to 16 months’ jail for Toh.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Maximilian Chew said the teenager was “situationally vulnerable” because he was a minor facing two adult men acting together and had been taken to an isolated location.
The prosecutor described Toh as “the architect of the entire encounter”, saying he had brought together the 15-year-old boy and a 39-year-old man for a sexual purpose.
Toh’s lawyers, Josephus Tan, Cory Wong and Devlin Mohyong of Invictus Law, sought a sentence of no more than 10 months.
They argued that the teenager had searched online for friends, initiated contact with Toh and expressed an interest in exploring the sexual topics discussed between them. They also said Toh’s offending was limited to a single encounter.
Chaw remains a co-accused in the case and is scheduled to plead guilty next month.
The Ministry of Defence said Toh was suspended from all duties following his arrest in 2024 and was later released from regular service. He is no longer with the Singapore Armed Forces.
The ministry said the SAF holds its personnel to high standards of discipline and integrity and that service personnel who commit offences will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Under Singapore law, an offender who causes a minor below 16 to perform sexual penetration can be sentenced to up to 10 years’ imprisonment, fined, or both.
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